jeudi 27 janvier 2011

Dear readers,
The end of my stay in the Princess Elisabeth station is coming close. Our flight to Novo is scheduled on Monday in the evening. There is a storm at present.

Here, I send you a panoramic photo of Yuboku valley from the NE mountain, that was made by our great photographer, Rene Robert.Zorigto's lakeis in the center (round). There is a small lake near the ski-doos but it does not have a name and we didn't drill it. Gigi's lake is L-shaped,more to the SW from the ski-doos. It's in the deepest part of the valley.

The Japanese geologists have surveyed extensively the area and made the maps that we use. Therefore, many names in this region are in japanese. For example, Yuboku Valley means 'Grassland valley'. Yuboku means "natural area that is used for raising livestock". So probably, the Japanese scientists noticed that the valley had a nice microclimate. And Takano-tume Peak means 'Hawk feet Peak'. It really looks like that from the eastern side.

I have started to prepare the return of the samples, and try to organise this the best possible. The samples must remain frozen during the trip back to Belgium! Elie and myself have already exchanged several emails about the best transport option.

Welcome-Welkom-Bienvenue

Dear all,This blog is about our scientific research in the frame of 3 expeditions to the Princess Elisabeth Station, the new Belgian Research Station, in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The expeditions are financed by the Federal Science Policy Office for the project BELDIVA. The logistic support at the Station is ensured by the International Polar Foundation. Guides from the Belgian Army have also accompanied us during the field trips, as the photograph René Robert.In addition, in 2013, one of us has been invited to participate to a expedition by INACH (Chile).Who are we? Scientists, mostly from Belgian Universities and Institutions, and our international colleagues who are proposing their complementary expertises. We work together and a characteristics of the Antarctic research is its high level of international collaboration, as requested by the Antarctic Treaty (http://www.ats.aq/index_e.htm).Because our teams are multilingual, the blog will also contain texts in different languages (presently English, Dutch, French, and maybe more in the future...). It is possible to have translations with Google. Hopefully, you will enjoy our chronicles, and do not hesitate to write comments and questions!